The grass of spring
by prenatural
Summary: A short story collection. First story: At the end of everything, Ruby Rose and Salem have the chance to talk. And in the process some truths come to light.
1. The threshold of heaven

**The threshold of heaven**

_Farewells are the threshold of heaven and the essence of hell._

**Emily Dickinson **

"It's over."

"I know. I feel it clearly."

"Is that all? Won't you make me an offer, won't you fight to the end? Will you even deny me the pleasure of hearing you beg?

"I'll never do that, silver-eyed warrior. I am too proud."

"I'm surprised," Ruby said, "surprised and disgusted by people like you, who very naturally confuse pride with gratuitous contempt and absolute selfishness."

"Wow, what a mouth you have." Salem laughed sweetly, like a maiden in love. "You know, I think you're the one who needs more than this. Something more significant than a battle 'won' and an enemy at your feet. Because you understand, deep down, that if you don't get that or something similar, you won't be able to move on. You won't take another step in your whole life. Or am I wrong? No, of course not. I see it in your eyes. Those eyes full of power..."

"You see what you want to see. That doesn't surprise me, though. After all, it's the only thing you've done all your life."

"Then why don't you just finish me off? What makes your pulse tremble? Fear that I'm not finished yet, that I have an ace up my sleeve? Ridiculous. You know very well that I am no longer a threat to you."

Ruby was silent.

"You don't answer, huh? I'm not surprised. Anyone can pick up a weapon and release their aggression on anything that comes their way. But when the enemy turns out to be yourself, well..., it's not so easy to slice anymore."

"Where do you want to go with this? Get to the point, it makes me sick to hear your voice."

"I think I've made things very clear. You have won, but you still know very little. The circle hasn't closed. And this hurts and frightens you."

"Well, you're wrong," Ruby said after a moment of silence. "I know enough. About you and the Grimm."

"Really? And what good is it to you? I will die soon, but the Grimms will stay. They are a separate existence from mine and much older. When you breathe your last breath, they will continue to threaten humanity. When humanity becomes extinct, they will surely kill each other on the ruins of the world until they all starve to death."

"Do you think you can deceive me and agitate me so easily? I'm not that little girl anymore. There are too many dead comrades behind my back for that. I know you're lying. You're right, killing you won't kill the Grimm. But without you to create horrible mutations and release them into the world, without the birthing pools that significantly increase their reproductive speed, so to speak, they will be reduced to a simple obstacle. We can dominate them. After all, you are the reason why the Grimms remained a threat to humanity after the discovery of Aura and Dust."

Don't make that stupid face of surprise. As I said, I know enough. Like it or not, we have won. Try again."

"As you wish. I'll ask you a very simple question: what good is that knowledge to you? It's true that your exploits have contributed to improving the general situation of humanity, at least as far as the Creatures of Grimm are concerned. But you are not a weapon without emotions and feelings, and this is about you and no one else. You said it yourself: you have too many dead comrades behind your back. Tell me, do you think it was worth it?"

"It was necessary."

"That's not what I asked you, Ruby Rose."

"It's the same thing. You gave us no choice. The fall of Beacon... No, for centuries your only desire has been the extermination of humanity. This is not what I wanted, and I would do anything to recover all that I have lost and sacrificed along the way. But it was necessary."

"I feel sorry for you. You may think it's a cruel mockery, but I mean it. Caught in a false victory, with all or almost everything you value lost and shattered behind you, for the sake of a false war. I have long since lost the ability to cry. But if I could, I would cry for you."

"False war? False war! Don't you dare deny the fall of Beacon and all your dirty machinations, the countless people who have suffered and died because of you.

"What? Oh, no, no. Of course not. I have no intention of denying what I have done or repenting for it. Why should I? I think that human beings are a plague and I stand by it. The falsehood is in the reason. For you and for most of those involved, surely this war is... it was a struggle for the survival of humanity. But not for Ozpin. He only wants my death."

"Speak clearly at once, or you will never speak again."

"You know he is immortal. More precisely, he goes through a process of reincarnation every time he dies. But the story he told you, whatever it was, is a lie. Let me guess. Cursed by the gods? Ah, don't bother, I see the truth in your eyes. How can you be so deluded?" She extended her arms. "Do you think this is a world governed and cared for by the gods?"

"Even if you are telling the truth," Ruby began a little later, "it doesn't matter. He would have his reasons for not telling us the truth. And, in any case, that doesn't change anything about this war.

"Listen to me until the end... " Salem stopped to spit blood, as black and thick as that of the Grimm. "And we'll see if you can keep thinking that way."

"I should finish you off," Ruby said quietly.

"But you won't. So shut up and listen.

First of all, there was no curse. It wasn't an accident or a mistake. He deceived me, pretending to be in love with me, and when he saw an opportunity to steal part of my power from me, he seized it. That's why he's immortal. And that's why he wants me dead: I'm the only one who can really kill him. He is afraid to die. He would do whatever it takes to stay in this world."

"That doesn't make sense. Ozpin's immortality is not immortality in the strict sense of the word. At death he enters another person's body, but eventually that person's original soul is the only thing left inside. Memories remain, but not the person who he was before. Even if he wanted to live as desperately as you say, it's impossible."

"I said first of all, didn't I? Here's the next part: that's also a lie. No matter how many years go by and how many bodies he uses, Ozpin is always Ozpin. All that's left of the person he gets into are the memories."

"You are lying! That... that can't be true. It would mean that I..."

"That you loved Ozpin, kissed Ozpin and slept with Ozpin, not Oscar. That you held the hand of someone who has died thousands of times and killed almost as many people as I have. Someone for whom death means nothing." She smiled. "I imagine putting it inside you was one of the best moments of his long life. He desperately desired your mother, more than any other woman, but could not make her his. And you are very much like her."

"It can't be. It can't. Shut up!"

"I feel sorry for you," Salem repeated. "The road to peace, to reconstruction, is already difficult enough, but after discovering that the walls around you and the floor beneath your feet are transparent, it's almost impossible. The rest of humanity will have to face the same thing. You have overcome war, well done, but peace is approaching, hovering over the horizon. Be very careful... or you will end up devouring each other."

Ruby lost strength in her legs. She was hurt and exhausted, but that's not why she fell. She lowered her head. The hood bathed her face in darkness.

"That's it, that's it, that's it! That's the expression I wanted to see!" Salem's voice didn't even sound human anymore. It seemed to join the howl of the wind that was stirring and swirling, that was pulling her cape, pulling _her_ to the depths of an unfathomable abyss.

Ruby spent much time like that, next to Salem, who was bleeding to death on the ground, to one side. Both were enveloped by the light of the fragmented moon. But in the end she lifted her head with strength, with the same strength she stepped on the ground and stood up again.

"This is what you really are," she said slowly. "That indecent rejoicing, that poorly hidden anger... nothing but an animal. Though you have a human body, you don't differ at all from the Grimm. I used to think it wasn't like that. That there had to be a reason. A motive. A thread of logic. But I was wrong. You simply hate indiscriminately, you feed on other people's negative feelings. You're an empty shell. A weapon without feelings or emotions."

I was wrong," she repeated, "and not only in this, but I will remedy it. _We_ will. For centuries, we have been hunted by inhuman beasts. For centuries, we have died, yes, but we have not stopped fighting. We created four kingdoms. Points of light in the darkness. And we will continue to fight, no matter what. Towards the future. Towards the light. You think you have achieved everything you wanted." She lifted the scythe and waved it in the air, full of a rage that she could not express with words or gestures, a rage that burned inside her. "Victory for hate incarnate, misery and pain for all. But you won't get what you want. Never."

Ruby's eyes shone like a lighthouse in the darkness, between the dust and earth.

"I am not resigned."

The scythe fell one last time. The morning fog covered the red cloak of death from sight, and then silence dominated the wasteland of the final battle once more.


	2. Fallen leaves

**Fallen leaves**

"Well?" Blake asked. "What did you want to talk about?"

She had dragged Blake to an empty classroom because it was the most private place she could think of. Ruby and Yang might interrupt them in their room, and this was a conversation they needed to have. Although she was not sure of how to start it.

"Give me a moment." Weiss said "I need to put my thoughts in order."

Fortunately, Blake didn't reply with something like "you should have done so before bringing me here". She had done it, or at least thought she had. Now that she was in front of her, all the phrases she had thought of escaped her mind, leaving it blank, searching for something in the dark.

She decided to start in the simplest of ways.

"I'm sorry."

Blake raised an eyebrow.

"If it's about before, we have already solved it, and we have forgiven each other, right?

"Don't say we solved it," she replied with a little more hostility than she had intended. "We looked good in front of the team, but both of us know that this is not finished, far from it. So don't play dumb, please. This is costing me a great effort. I'm not used to apologizing, to bowing my head in front of anyone. So, please, don't make it harder for me.

"I'm listening," Blake said, softly and after a while.

She stepped back, climbed onto one of the tables, crossed one leg over the other and put her hands, also one on top of the other, on her knee.

Weiss put her back and one boot against the wall.

"It matters that you were from the White Fang," she said. "At least it matters to me. Because I felt like I don't know you, not because I think you are threat or anything like that. Why did you join?"

"When I did, the White Fang was not like that. We were a group that protested peacefully, that sought equality. As for the motive, that could not be more obvious."

"When did you leave?"

"…Years after my father stepped down from his position because the organization was radicalizing," she admitted. "I thought it was my duty as a Faunus to fight with my own kind. That after years of trying to change things the right way, it was time to do it the hard way."

"Have you hurt a person before?"

"Yes," she said, and gained a sudden interest in a wall.

Weiss lips were a thin line.

"Did you… I'm afraid to ask this question, but I have to do it, we have come too far to back out now. Have you ever killed somebody? Don't answer; I can see it clearly on your face. How could you justify something like that?"

"Because something needed to change, Weiss. That's what I told myself. And is true, in part, even though it doesn't justify committing atrocities. Even you must admit it. At this rate, we will destroy each other sooner or later. And the Grimm will devour the leftovers. Humanity has always been pushing us, and each time they do it with more force because we have started to push back."

"Don't change the subject. If you are not ready to speak with frankness and sincerity, I will accept it, but then this is useless and I should leave right now."

"I didn't…"

"Yes, you did. And you should admit it. The reason you killed doesn't have anything to do with if the existence of the White Fang is justified or not."

Blake came down from the table, stretched like a cat and began to move in a semicircle, uneasy, without taking her eyes off her. Shed looked at her as if she was trapped with an enemy and- she had to admit it- she was getting nervous.

That behavior probably came from the training the White Fang gave her. Analyzing the enemy while keeping in mind the escape routes and never letting her guard down. That she was falling into old patterns didn't speak well of her chances of leaving behind her past once and for all.

Still, Weiss didn't say a word. She gave her time to organize her thoughts.

"I already told you. Because I thought something needed to change, I became a soldier that didn't question his orders. Worse still, one that didn't feel the need to question them because they were obviously correct and necessary. I still remember the first time I killed a person. I looked into his eyes as he died and I feel nothing. Not even a stab of regret. Because he was a soldier, one of our oppressors."

Maybe having a private talk with her hadn't been such a good idea. The distance between them was growing more and more at an alarming speed, instead of closing. It was unthinkable that she had slept for weeks in the same room as a person like her.

"If it's any consolation," she continued, "I left the White Fang when we were going to rob a train, just Adam and me..."

"Who's Adam?"

"My best friend. My mentor. And also the one I considered the love of my life. The thing is, we were going to rob it, give the Dust to those who needed it the most, but Adam didn't care about the lives of the crew. He was ready to sacrifice the lives of innocent people to get what he wanted. And then I started to doubt, to ask questions. And so I left."

Weiss burst out laughing. She could not help it. Although she had done this with the intention of finally reconciling with Blake, to leave their differences behind.

"Good for you. Good for you, but did you think the "soldiers" you killed didn't have love ones who would cry for them?"

By the way she had spoken about it, she probably hadn't killed any of her family members. Still, it was chilling to think that Blake had been part of the shadow that had loomed over her . She didn't understand how she had felt, and didn't seem interested in understanding. Many of her family members had disappeared, just like that, from one day to another. And she had picked up whispers about the White Fang, about the murders, the terrorist attacks, but of course she had been too young to really understand it. To her, they had been like death itself, something incompressible and terrifying.

She had spent many nights trembling beneath the covers, seriously fearing that the White Fang would come for her this time.

And when she had grown up, when she had truly understood what it was all about, it had been even worse for her. All the attempts to murder her had been foiled, though more because of luck than anything, but in the process she had seen horrible things. More things than a girl of her age should see in a fair and just world.

"No," Blake replied, "I regret what I did. Every day I regret not leaving when this disaster started."

"You left. Just like that. You allowed Adam to steal the Dust, to accomplish what he had planned. You only saved yourself."

Blake lowered her head.

"None of that! If you have to courage to fight for equality between Faunus and human beings by following your own path, not that of the White Fang, then look me in the eye! Look at me!"

Weiss was breathing heavily. She was getting agitated, losing control. If she kept this up somebody was going to heard her, and if they interrupted the conversation it was never going to be continued. The only thing that would end their friendship. But anyway, she was not sure she wanted to continue being friends with that sort of person.

Blake headed towards the door, of course. She had already anticipated it. She got ahead of her, blocking the way with her body.

"We can't let it end like this," Weiss said. "If you go now, you can say goodbye to the team, because we won't ever be truly one. You know I'm right. And I know you don't care much about me, but don't force Yang and Ruby to live with that."

This time, Blake did something that surprised her. She grabbed her by the shoulders and slammed her against the door. Finally, Blake was looking at her in the eye. There was an impotent rage there that was soon replaced by doubt and a little bit of fear.

"If I had tried to fight him, I would have been killed."

_Is that right, or it was because you didn't have the courage to fight the man you loved, that you still love, even though you knew it would mean letting him kill the crew?_ Weiss thought this but didn't say it. If she had done it, the conversation would have from saying things that needed to be said to pure cruelty. And a lot could be said about her attitude, but Weiss Schnee was never cruel.

"Then say it like it is. Don't pretend it's a great change, a step forward. You still have not taken a single step in your journey of redemption. You have no right to feel good about yourself just because you made a single correct choice. Do you think life is so simple?"

"…No, you're right. But I don't know what to do. I'm scared, and I'm alone…"

"Did you understand anything? We are a team. You are not alone, not anymore, and you will never be alone again. You can rely on us."

"It's not that easy to trust someone else. I do not even know you, nor do you and the others know me."

"You know enough. You know we would go to help you even if you didn't want to see us again. Stop making excuses, you're the main problem. I know I haven't made things easier for you, and I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, but you cannot lay all the blame for your trust issues on our shoulders. Look, I know it's terrible how they treat your kind…"

"Yeah? You could have fooled me. You always justify the labor practices of your company, and that doesn't only mean justifying the murder of my kind, as you so eloquently put it, but their torture. Because that's what it is. A torture not everybody escapes from with their lives."

How had she changed the conversation so quickly? She even felt a bit nauseous.

"I don't support that. Believe me."

"Really?"

"Really. You're proud of your heritage, right? Of being a Faunus?"

"Of course. What kind of question is that?"

"Well, I don't want to feel ashamed of being a Schnee. Even though there are a lot of reasons to be."

Blake fell silent. She looked at her like she was seeing her for the first time.

"Or rather, there are many reasons why I should be ashamed of it. But no. I refuse. My father is an irremediable bastard who would be better off dead, but my mother has nothing to do with that. Nor my sister. My sister and I want to get out of his shadow, and we will, in time. The day will come when dad… Jacques won't have any power, and it will be in my hands. I will change things. Because I believe that it is the right thing to do. Because you are not wrong, something needs to change, sooner or later, for the good of all of us, humans and Faunus alike. They don't have any right to treat you all like they do just because of a few biological differences."

"You are wrong."

"Excuse me?"

"I meant, the discrimination we face is not because we have animal parts. Don't get me wrong, to some people that's all there is, but the true motive, the core of the problem, is another."

"Really?"

Weiss had never wondered why the Faunus were discriminated against, because it had seemed fairly evident. That they were part animal and, more recently, the acts of terrorists of the White Fang. What other reason there would be?

"Really. I don't like to talk about this, just thinking about it makes me feel ill, but you deserve sincerity. So I will. Close your eyes and imagine what I'm going to tell you."

"Blake, please. I appreciate the effort, really, but say it clearly and directly."

"I'm trying to make you understand it, not just tell you. So as a reward for my efforts, make an effort yourself. Humor me."

Well, if she said it like that, she could not refuse. Weiss closed her eyes and waited.

"You are a woman in ancient times. You have been fighting for all your life against the Grimm because choice is not a factor, every person that can hold a weapon must fight to protect what little they have. There are not walls to protect you from the Grimm, just that, the blood of warriors.

You have contact with some nearby settlements, treaties: help with hunting and those sorts of things. But the world is something immense and, for the most part, unknown. And suddenly strange people who dress differently and speak differently appear. But you accept them and integrate them into your community. Why not? After all, the place you all call home could be erased from the earth from one day to another, and you are always in need of works, more hunters, and more people that can face the Grimm.

Except that it does not take long to discover that they are not really human beings. Some of them have cat ears, others the fangs of a wolf, others the horns of a bull. They possess the ability to see in the dark, to break an arm with just one punch or maybe even kill you outright. Oh, the horror, they are monsters. They don't belong here, in the human world. So blood must flow."

At first Blake's tone had been dispassionate, dry, but as she told the story her anger and desperation came closer to the surface. Her voice trembled, hers feelings were bubbling like lava right under her words.

Weiss's stomach churned. She had already understood the meaning of the history, and it was horrible, even if it made a lot of sense.

She opened her eyes and looked at her, aware that, in spite of herself, she was close to tears.

"You're saying they see you as monsters. No, worse still, they think you are only one step removed from the Grimm."

"That's right. In your eyes we are an enemy, an mistake of nature. Many think that someday we will turn around, massacre you all and somehow allow the Grimm to get inside the kingdoms."

"But why? How could they think that way?"

Except she already knew that. Even though she hadn't said it directly, hadn't she thought of the White Fang as an enemy of humanity? Had she not put them on the same level as the Grimm?

"Don't search for logic when there is none. They base those thoughts on their pain and fear. Besides, there's no reason to waste time thinking about it. Because the White Fang are proving humanity right, justifying any abuse they have and will inflict on the Faunus. Now, they even have Grimm masks. I understand it was a way to mock that idea, but they don't see it that way, they just think that finally, finally those degenerates have shown their true face to the world. Finally, the farce is over."

Blake half-closed her eyes. Two or three tears ran down her cheeks.

"I'm sick and tired," she said in a very weak and very vulnerable voice. "Tired of all of this."

Weiss touched her face and simply left her hand there, she didn't go further. Cleaning her tears with the tips of her fingers felt like an insignificant gesture, almost insulting in comparison with the depth of the pain she hid inside.

"The scar on my face…" she said, undecided. She raised the other hand and traced the scar with her fingers, softly, with great care, like it was still bleeding. A phantom pain that had persisted since almost ten years ago. "Since I was little I was the perfect Schnee. Intelligent, hardworking,elegant in how I dressed and in my behavior. And my voice made me stand out. For him, I was the perfect Schnee. I had fallen naturally into the role he had created for me in his personal narrative of the world.

Suddenly, without me noticing, I started to hate myself. So to sully my image without imperfections, one day I picked up a knife and slit my face. Violently, offhandedly. I almost took my eye out.

You know what's the cherry on the top? The funniest thing about this? When I got out of the hospital and looked at myself in the mirror from the first time, I felt satisfied with my body. It was the first time I felt like myself. Instead of trying to understand why I had done such a thing, Jacques tried to browbeat me so I wouldn't do it again. He didn't offer me anything but contempt. And still, he pretends to love me, keeps trying to control my life. I ... I want to kill him. More than that, I want to erase his name from the face of the earth, destroy everything he has built.

I'll change things, Blake. I promise. I will try to accomplish it with all my strength. But I cannot do it alone; I cannot change the future of the Faunus according to my viewpoint as a human. When I come to power, will you help me? Will you advise me when I need it?"

Blake raised her head. That which she could see in her eyes… was it hope? Yes, a point of light in an uncertain future. For the first time in a long time, she had a concrete plan.

"Sure. Sure, whatever you need."

"Blake?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't want the conversation to go like this. I didn't mean to judge you, and I really don't blame you for what you did. For me, is enough that you are not there anymore. That you're ready to change."

Blake nodded weakly. Her shoulders were shaking as she cried silently.

She had never seen her so vulnerable. Even though she didn't really know her, like she had said. Not yet. But this was a beginning, a step in the right direction.

"I love you all. You three are the family I should have had, and I was so afraid I had irreparably damaged this. That I was going to lose you. You understand me, put up with me, and I've never been happier than in these few months I've spent in Beacon. I am sorry."

"I'm the one that should be sorry. I said a lot of hurtful things even though I knew you were right, that I was only trying to hide from the truth."

"No. You're the one who was right, Blake. You. The White Fang is a symptom, not the disease.

Dry your eyes and let's go. I don't want the others to worry."

Blake did it.

"If you need a moment..." Weiss said.

"I don't. Don't worry. Let's get out of here."

* * *

**Author's Note**

Unfortunately, this story is not very good... or rather, it is clearly incomplete. It's just a single scene, with no beginning (since it's in the series itself, which is not my fault) and what's worse, no ending. Even back then I was aware of that, but I didn't want to write several chapters focusing on Blake and Weiss and everything that separates them. And now neither.

I put this story here because I already had the translation done, so why not archive it? Anyway. I hope some of you enjoyed this. If not for the execution, at least because this story is about something very rarely explored in the fandom. As far as I know.

One more thing: I've marked this as complete because it's a collection of short stories, not because I don't plan to continue with it. In other words, because each chapter _could_ be the end.

I currently have an idea for a story that accompanies the first (titled, of course, The essence of hell) that will be a crossover between RWBY and Mike Carey's Lucifer, i.e. the one that appears in Sandman.

We'll see if I end up writing it or not.


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